This Halloween, Calling Up Justice celebrated with three different community gatherings full of creativity, costumes, laughter, and disability justice! From a virtual juke joint to collaborative pumpkin decorating to an outdoor horror movie night, we enjoyed all the ways our communities made Halloween accessible, playful, and connected. We love celebrating holidays in ways that allow disabled people to participate, create, and enjoy each other’s company.
👻 Halloween Weekend in Garden: Costumes, Community, and a Juke Joint!
Our first celebration was Halloween Weekend in Garden, a virtual gathering space where community members hosted two days of spooky programming on October 31 and November 1.
The weekend was packed with activities, including poetry writing with Rooted w/ Boba, a Hadestown watch party, a costume contest with a cash prize, TikTok dance lessons, an undead disco with DJ Soundshark, virtual pumpkin decorating, and even a Bob’s Burgers marathon!
Our absolute favorite was GenDoc’s Juke Joint, hosted by GenDoc and Deeda. The virtual environment looked like a set from the film Sinners, complete with the atmosphere of a supernatural blues club. We loved exploring this imaginative space, playing trivia, and socializing with everyone. It was a wonderful example of how virtual worlds can create immersive cultural experiences that don’t require everyone to be in the same physical location.
Garden reminded us that accessible digital spaces can be more than substitutes for in-person gatherings. They can be destinations of their own, full of creativity, culture, and community.
🎃 CripCreate Halloween: Disabled Witches and Digital Pumpkins!
Our second celebration took place during CripCreate, our regular creative community gathering. This session was a little different from our usual format. Instead of everyone working on their own projects, we all participated in the same activities together, and it was hilarious!
Julie N facilitated the gathering and brought a wonderful collection of Halloween activities. We collaborated on a specially written Halloween CripCreate themed Mad Libs, filling in the blanks together to create an increasingly ridiculous story. The results had everyone laughing! We also listened to a blessing for disabled witches and watched images of disabled people showing off their Halloween costumes.
Claudia brought a digital pumpkin decorating activity she learned from Garden, inviting everyone to create their own spooky designs. We shared our pumpkins with the group, celebrating everyone’s wildly different artistic choices. View them all here: https://canva.link/25l1fznoyrmjcyr
What made this gathering special was the collective experience. CripCreate often offers multiple rooms and different ways to participate, allowing people to follow their own energy and access needs. This time, we found joy in making something together. We laughed, created art, and enjoyed being in community without the pressure of producing anything perfect.
🍿 Disability Justice Culture Club: An Outdoor Horror Movie Night!
Our third Halloween activity was hosted by our friends at Disability Justice Culture Club (DJCC), who organized an outdoor movie night featuring the 1985 horror film Silver Bullet.
The movie features a young wheelchair user at the center of a werewolf story. Watching a disabled character take an active role in a classic horror adventure made it an especially fitting choice for a disability justice Halloween gathering.
DJCC also distributed PPE goodie bags, bringing their ongoing commitment to community care and COVID safety into the celebration. We love seeing the ways our community makes room for both fun and collective protection. Accessible gatherings are not just about getting people into a space. They’re about creating conditions where people can participate with greater safety and care.
🧡 Accessibility Makes Halloween More Fun!
These three celebrations offered different ways to experience Halloween: exploring a virtual world, creating art together online, and gathering outdoors for a spooky movie.
Each event reflected something we value at Calling Up Justice: accessibility isn’t the opposite of fun. It’s part of how we make more fun possible.
We love celebrating with communities that understand creativity, disability culture, COVID safety, and collective care can all be part of the same party. Whether we were wandering through a digital juke joint, laughing at ridiculous Mad Libs, showing off our pumpkins, or enjoying a werewolf movie, we were reminded of how much joy we can create when we build spaces with each other in mind.
Happy Halloween from Calling Up Justice!